Obedience to the Word of God (Part 1 of 3)

Holy Violence - Charles Spurgeon Audio Sermons

Keep your heart!

Keep your heart!

(Arthur Pink)

"Keep your heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." Proverbs 4:23

The 'heart' is here put for our whole inner being. It is that which controls and gives character to all that we do.

To 'keep' — garrison or guard — the heart is the great work which God has assigned us. The enablement is His — but the duty is ours. We are to keep . . .
  the imagination from vanity,
  the understanding from error,
  the will from perverseness,
  the conscience clear of guilt,
  the affections from being set on inordinate or evil objects,
  the mind from being employed on worthless or vile subjects.
This, this is the work to which God has called us!

"The keeping and right managing of the heart in every condition, is the great business of a Christian's life!" John Flavel

This is too hard for me!

This is too hard for me!

(Alexander Smellie, "The Hour of Silence" 1899)

"Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. And Abraham called the name of the place: Jehovah-Jireh — the Lord will provide!" Genesis 22:13-14

And what does He provide?

The Lord will provide BREAD when I am hungry. It seems natural to begin there. He has a care for my body as well as for my soul. 

He is certainly not desirous that I should.have wealth or distinction or the means of indulgence and display. But, if I trust Him, I shall get enough for comfort — if not enough for plenty; enough to rid me from unworthy worry — if not enough to free me from wholesome dependence and continuous faith. Every modest and present need, He is sure to satisfy.

The Lord will provide HELP when I am helpless. 

Is it the discipline of my own inner life? Is it to escape this enticing world? I am sufficient for none of these things.
Sometimes my road is rough,
sometimes it is steep,
sometimes it is dark,
sometimes it is slippery.
My heart whispers discouragement, and says, "This is too hard for me!" But, when I come to the place, I find that God Himself has solved my difficulties, and puts to flight my fears!

Best of all, my Lord will provide SALVATION when I am burdened with sin. It was a lamb for sacrifice which Jehovah-Jireh prepared on the bare summit of Moriah. And in fullness of time, on the green hill of Calvary, close beside mount Moriah — a better Lamb died by divine appointment and made reconciliation for my iniquity! In the presence of such a sacrifice, how full my joy should be! Jesus, the precious Lamb of God . . .
  breaks every fetter,
  unbars every door,
  forgives every debt!

Dead and dark seasons

Dead and dark seasons

(J. C. Philpot, "REVIEWS")

All Christians, even the most eminent servants of God, have their dead and dark seasons—when the life of God seems sunk to so low an ebb as to be hardly visible—so hidden is the stream by the mud-banks of their fallen nature.

By these very dark and dead seasons, the people of God are instructed. They see and feel what 'the flesh' really is—how alienated from the life of God;
they learn in whom all their strength and sufficiency lie; they are taught that in them, that is, in their flesh, dwells no good thing; that no exertions of their own can maintain in strength and vigor the life of God; and that all they are, and have—all they believe, know, feel,
and enjoy—with all their ability, usefulness, gifts, and grace—flow from the pure, sovereign grace—the rich, free, undeserved, yet unceasing goodness and mercy of God!

They learn in this hard school of painful experience, their
emptiness and nothingness—and that without Christ they
can do nothing. 

They thus become clothed with humility, that rare, yet lovely garb; cease from their own strength and wisdom; and learn experimentally that Christ is, and
ever must be, all in all to them, and all in all in them.

When You shall enlarge my heart.

When You shall enlarge my heart.

(Philpot, "Divine Enlargement and Spiritual Obedience")

"I will run the way of Your commandments, when
 You shall enlarge my heart." Psalm 119:32

The Word of God is full of precepts, but we are totally
unable to perform them in our own strength. We cannot,
without divine assistance, perform the precept . . .
  with a single eye to the glory of God, from heavenly motives, and
  in a way acceptable to the Lord,
without special power from on high.

We need a extraordinary power to be put forth in our hearts, a special work of the Spirit upon the conscience, in order to spiritually fulfill in the slightest degree, the least of God's commandments.

None but the Lord Himself can enlarge the heart of His people. None but the Lord can expand their hearts Godwards, and remove that narrowedness
and contractedness in divine things, which is thenplague and burden of a God fearing soul.

When the Lord is absent,
when He hides His lovely face,
when He does not draw near to visit and bless, the heart contracts in its own narrow compass.

But when the Lord is pleased to favor the soul with His
own gracious presence, and bring Himself near to the
heart, His felt presence opens, enlarges, and expands
the soul, so as to receive Him in all His love and grace.

The old man

The old man

The following is from Spurgeon's sermon,
   "INWARD CONFLICTS"

Why does God not remove the old sinful nature out of the Christian?

SIN REMAINING IN THE BELIEVER--
drives him humbly to confess his own nothingness, excludes all boasting from his tongue,
compels him to trust in his God,
takes away from him his propensity to trust in himself,
leads him to value the precious blood which cleanses him,
to prize the Holy Spirit who sanctifies him, to rejoice in the faithfulness, and patience, of God who still continues to be gracious to him.

And oh! what songs will the man of God sing when he gets to heaven!

How much sweeter will be the music, because of the conflict!
How much more glorious the victory, because of the warfare!

If I could be totally delivered from sin, root and branch, I
certainly would; but yet am I conscious that no Christian would glorify God so much in heaven as he now does, if there were not sin to be contended with. 

A creature that could not sin, could scarcely show forth much of the praise of God by its holiness;
but that the creature can sin, nay, that there is a strong
drawing towards sin, and yet the divine grace keeps a man from
it, and sanctifies him even to perfection, why this will make
the song come swelling up of "Hallelujah! hallelujah! hallelujah!"

If no adversaries had been fought, then no victories could have been won; if there were no temptations for us to struggle with, then there would have been no elbow-room for our faith, and no power for the display of the bare arm of God.

Many believers would have grown too proud to be borne with, if some infirmity had not plucked the plume from their helmets and made them mourn with brokenness of heart before God.

God can bring good out of evil by his overruling grace,
while on the other hand our good works have often been
the greatest curse we have ever had!

Good works have puffed us up, and so have led us into pride;
while our sins, though pulling us
 down, have, through almighty
grace, led us to work for eternity.

Gaze Upon That Face!

Gaze Upon That Face!

The following is from Spurgeon's sermon,
    "FRAGRANT GRACES"

I fear we do not enough Gaze Upon That Face covered with the
bloody sweat, for if we did, we would be more like him, we
would love him better; we would live more passionately for him,
and would spend and be spent, that we might promote his glory.